


The Guillotine

by SakuraSnowLady



Category: Tangled (2010), Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 18:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18155666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraSnowLady/pseuds/SakuraSnowLady
Summary: Betrayed and abandoned yet again by Rapunzel and her Father, Varian, with the help of two unlikely figures, has his final revenge against them.





	The Guillotine

It was early morning when princess Rapunzel returned to her kingdom with her caravan of friends. They had journeyed together on one whimsical adventure after another, all on their quest to solve the mystery of the black rocks. Now that that mystery had been solved, it was time to return home.

As they rode through the kingdom, however, they noticed that something was horribly off. The usually sickeningly cheerful saccharine world in which they lived in was now ominous and still. A chilly wind blew through the fields of sunflowers at the edge of Corona's usually lush valleys, but even these hills and flowers, although still alive, had a dark twinge of color to them.

As they rode on passed homes and small villages, no one came out to greet them. She had written to her Father days ago about their return, so she was expecting a great welcoming upon her return. She knew her Father would have thrown a great parade or a party for the townspeople, who would have all rushed from their homes to greet her upon her arrival. Then, they would have all feasted well into the night. But as they rode closer and closer to the castle, they saw not a soul, and the whole kingdom was like a ghost town.

"What's going on?" Raps said. "Where is everyone?"

As they arrived at the castle finally, all three were on high alert. A steady chill was in the air that grew stronger. The castle itself was in a state of disrepair. Trash and debris lined the streets. The bodies of half-eaten carcasses were everywhere. Rapunzel felt as if she was going to faint on sight of them. She covered her eyes and withdrew behind Cass, her stomach churning with disgust.

"What happened here?" Cass said, her nose wrinkled in disgust herself. She looked around for guards or any other signs of life, but saw nothing but the disgusting carnage that lay in front of her. Then, her eyes widened. "A plague!" she realized. "Come on, Raps. We're not safe here."

They did not know that they were being watched. From the time they had arrived in Corona in that ridiculous caravan of theirs, up until they reached the castle gates, a figure in black had been watching them from the picture window in the hall before the throne room. He stood motionless as their party drew closer and closer to the castle, his face implacable except for a playful smirk on his lips. He only moved once they had arrived at the castle walls and were out of sight of him. Once they were within the walls of the castle they were within his trap. It was time to summon the monsters.

Shadows of black beasts began to emerge from every side street and lair.

Cass and Raps heard fowl shrieks coming at them from down a side street. But, as they attempted to leave the city, they were surrounded by a blurred wall of fur and scale on all sides.

Cass drew her sword and Raps let down her hair. Something pounced, and Raps felt a clawed foot step down hard on her hair, pulling and twisting it, like Mother Goethel had once done to make her trip and fall. She screamed as it nearly tore her hair from her head. Then, she felt a squishy substance hit the top of her head. It began to drip and coagulate down her long blonde hair, sticking it together like a hard and heavy resin. Raps lost lost her balance and fell, screaming, on her back, as her hair became a dead weight.

The shadows made mince work of Cass and Eugene, knocking the sword from Cass' hands and pinning the two of them together with Rapunzel. Before they could do anything more, they were lashed together with chains and hooded. Raps listened through the hood at the screeching, clawing and squeeing with glee that tore in a fierce hurricane of fur around her, her heart beating through the chains.

Slowly, the screeches began to diminish and Rapunzel heard next the slow approach of light bootfalls on the pavement.

Through the hood, the princess suddenly heard someone speak. The voice was shadowed and muffled, but there was a twinge of familiarity to it. "Welcome back, princess," it spoke with slow relish. "I am placing you under arrest for your heinous crimes against the New King of Corona. Judgment day has arrived for you finally. You will not be able to get away with your foolishness any longer."

'New King?! Crimes?!" the princess' mind was a cacophony of terror and confusion. She tried to protest, but the hood muffled her cries. She and her friends were led away to the dungeons amidst a crowd of cackling, jeering shadows.

 

 

Down, down deep into the dungeons she was led, separated from her friends one by one. Soon, the cackling died down to slow and steady stillness. The warm open air around her became cold and slimy. She heard the steady drip of water from somewhere. Soon, it became so cold that she began to shiver. The silence around her was almost deafening. She was shoved forward and the hood and chains were removed. Shaking, she looked around her in the shadows. Her vision slowly adjusted, but there wasn't much light for her to see by. She soon realized that she was in the deepest part of her Father's dungeons, housed in a cell meant for those who weren't ever to see the light of day again. She saw manacles on the walls and a hard bench to sleep on. She had been in her Father's dungeon before, but never this far down.

She steadied her panic and sat on the bench. She called the names of her friends, but nobody answered. She was all alone in this deep, dark cell. Shivering from the cold, she waited, for whoever had put her here would surely come visit her. As she sat, her hand brushed over a piece of paper that had been left on the bench beside her. Opening it, she carefully read the meticulous black handwriting. _"Dear princess,"_ it read.  _"It is time for you to pay for your mistakes and crimes. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time now. Your Father and Mother are already gone, dear princess, and you will be next. Signed, the New King of Corona._

The princess read the letter with trembling fingers. Tears blotted her vision. New King? Mistakes? Her parents? No, this had to be a joke, her mind raced. Or a dream. Again, there was a sense of familiarity, as there had been with the voice that had spoken earlier, but her mind could not place it, much like a nagging sense of deja vu.

A month passed in the dungeons. The princess lost weight from the rancid food she was given and her own waning appetite over her situation. Every day, her grief grew, for this did not seem to be a dream, but harsh reality. She wondered if she would ever see her friends or parents again. At night, although it was hard to tell what was truly day and night in the dungeon, the very idea thought of being torn from them almost made her go mad, mad with despair, mad with anger, mad with a vengeance. She could not tell anymore. She would pace her cell back and forth, back and forth, until she was too exhausted to do so anymore.

Escape was impossible. There was no sunlight in the dungeon. Her hair was still encased in the purple resin. No matter what she did, she could not free herself from it. All her belongings had been taken from her. She was trapped. Trapped and lost. Had her captors forgotten all about her? What about the promise of death she had been given in the letter she had read on her first day in this horrible place? Sometimes, she would bite her lip in anguish and stifle a scream, or pound her fists against the cold and unforgiving cell walls. "Please!" she would wail. "Please! Is anyone around? Let me out of here! I need to speak to my Father!" Sometimes, she would yell in anger. "My Father will come after you for this, New King! Whoever you are," she would finish with a whisper.

But nobody would reply.

During her time in the dungeon, she found three other letters, carefully stuffed within the crevices in the dungeon walls. Exploring the dungeon during her bouts of restlessness revealed them to her one by one. The letters were short.

The first letter read:

_Everyday I beg for forgiveness and a chance to continue my experiments. A chance to free my Father from his prison. A prison that I created. Everyday I am ignored. Like an animal. They never cared about me. They still don't. I was_ _ promised _ _help. The royals have once again broken their promises..._

The second letter was even shorter:

_Here I am still. The guards have promised me death, but even death is too good for me. I wish they would send me to be with my Father..._

And finally, the final letter, written in barely recognizable handwriting:

_I aM the MaDDness and ThE madDNess is mE. BuT iT is NOT my eNemY. I KNOW wHo my EnMIES are._

As the princess read the final letter for what was the 83rd time, she suddenly heard a clanging sound down the hall from her cell. She quickly stuffed the letter back in its crevice and stood up. Someone was coming, she realized. It was the first signs of life she had heard in a month since she had been brought to this musty dungeon. Her heart beat fast. Soon, she would get some answers. But what if she didn't like what was coming? No, it would be much better for her to remain in the dungeon rather than face the truth of what had happened to her parents, she thought.

But one by one, the shadows came for her, taking her in spite of her protests, and she was finally led from the dungeons towards whatever fate awaited her. As she was led, she noticed that there were no other prisoners in the dungeon other than herself.

As she was led to the Executioner's square, the shadows around emerged as recognizable forms, large rats and opossums and raccoons. They lined the square in a seething mess of fur and claw. Raps saw only a few humans among these grotesque beasts, but they were all ruffians, and not the fun-looking kind. There were a few children here and there as well. She stared at them in horror and shock. What insanity had replaced her Father's Kingdom with this?

In the center of the square was the executioner's block. Here stood a massive guillotine. She watched cool shadows and dim red lighting from the light of the dawning sun play in the glint of the massive steel blade, but there was a figure standing near the block by the guillotine who caught her attention. The figure was tall and dressed in a long black coat. As she was led closer to the block, she saw that it was wearing a black Bauta mask instead of an executioner's mask. In the dim lighting of the executioner's square, its eyes glowed a red gold.

As the princess was led to the guillotine, the figure in the Bauta mask spoke directly to her. "Dear princess," it began. "Do you know why have been  _brought_ here today?"

The princess recognized the muffled voice as the one she had heard through the hood on the day she had been captured arriving in the Kingdom. She stared at the speaker in continued horror. Once again, the voice had a familiar twinge to it that she couldn't place. "My parents," she blurted out. "What have you  _done_  with them?!

"Tut tut," the figure said. "That is the  _incorrect_  answer. You are here to answer for your mistakes and crimes," it finished with a burning anger.

" _What_ crimes and mistakes?!"

"Several, in fact. But of course, I'm sure you won't be able to remember them. Shall I name them for you then? Alright then. Let's begin," and he went on, ignoring her protests, producing a scroll from under his coat and unfurling it rather dramatically to reveal a long list of things that he began to read to her. " _You_ and your family have  _lied_  to your people, ignored their sufferings, made promises lightly that you then broke without a backwards glance, threw parties and elaborate challenges while the black rocks, a curse brought on by you and your Father's selfishness,  _destroyed_ parts of your kingdom, lazily ignored all cries for help by your people over the problem, ignored and betrayed an old friend in need, stole things from him to use to your advantage, and left him to rot in his hour of need. You have chosen a life of ignorance and privilege over duty, and your family's wealth has come at the expense of your own people. To name a one, you have spent money from the treasury on silly inventions and elaborate barrettes for your hair, while parts of your kingdom remain in disrepair from the black rocks to this day. The _list_  does go on more, but I think that should be enough for today." And he closed it with a perfunct snap.

As Raps listened to this long and rather impressive rap sheet, a look of guilt crossed her face. Then, stubbornly, she said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Heh," the figure smirked from beneath the mask. "Of course you don't."

"I haven't  _done_ any of those things!" she denied. "You're crazy!"

"Yes, you have," he leaned in towards her. "I saw the look of guilt cross your face just now. You know  _exactly_ what you have done, don't you? Tell me, princess, was your journey towards the dark Kingdom worth it? Did you get all of your adventuring done?"

Raps gasped. "How did you-?" Their quest into the dark kingdom had been sworn to secrecy, but then again, Raps had never been very good at keeping secrets in the past.

"Did you get everything that you think you are worthy of finding?" he cut her off with a laugh.

"I-" she started.

"Or were you just running from the mess you left behind here," he finished with bitter snark.

She didn't say anything at first.

"Was the Idol you stole worth it as well? Did it make you feel better?"

"I didn't steal-" she trailed off. " _How_ did you know-" she said next. "I was homesick, and I-"

"I know everything," he cut her off again. "I was a wizard, once, after all."

"Stop it!" she said covering her ears and shaking her head. "I don't have to listen to you!" she whined stubbornly, "I haven't done anything  _wrong_. I'm not a bad person. I'm a good person. Everyone loves me. Everyone worships me."

"You are preaching to the choir, my dear," he said, ignoring her. "You have enemies. Good ones who hate you for all the right reasons, you've just erased them from your life. There is one, in particular, that you abandoned to go on your little quest. Do you remember him? He was once a friend of yours."

" _What_  friend?"

"The one who begged you for help during a blizzard! The one you instead had thrown out callously into the snow where he could have died. The one whose Father was killed by the black rocks after they destroyed his home and village. The one you ignored and denigrated until he couldn't  _stand_  it anymore and had no choice but to attack you in order to get things done around here!"

"I-thought- my Father promised him help," she cried, her little mind slowly beginning to remember things.

"The same Father who persecuted and ignored him in the first place?"

"I-um, if I say Yes, will you let me go?"

"You think you're worth letting go?" he seethed, the eyes of the Bauta mask turning from a red gold to a furious red.

"I-I-did-something...happen to him?" she asked timidly.

"Oh, so  _now_ you care about him, now that you're caught in the very same trap he was once caught in."

Raps didn't say anything, again. She suddenly felt exhausted. The figure went on. "Anyway, the questioning is over, and I do not feel that your testimony was strong enough repentance for your actions. Therefore, you will be sentenced to the guillotine."

"What!" she cried out. "Please! No!"

"It is too late," he spat. "Your fate has already been decided."

"But, I, what was the point of all of this then, Mr.-Mr. Mask wearer you! Why put me on trial! And you never told me what happened to my parents!" She cried out as she was grabbed by two shadowy figures and pulled towards the guillotine.

He rolled his eyes beneath the mask.

"Still as spoiled as ever, I see," he joked. "And this wasn't a _trial_ _._ You don't deserve that, not after everything that you've done."

The princess could only struggle as two burly figures grabbed her and trundled her to a board. They slid it forward until her head was in the hole, the giant blade swaying lightly overhead. The figure withdrew to the side of the guillotine, his hand on the rope that would raise the fearsome blade high. The princess kicked and thrashed. "No! Stop!" she yelled. "My _Father_ will have your heads for this! You hear! He will if you don't let me go  _right_ now!"

"Shut up," the figure said. "You're luck has run out, princess."

The princess continued to thrash, however, it was of no use. The blade was poised to fall, but the executioner gripped the rope...and hesitated. "Tell me princess," his voice a barely audible whisper. "Do you recognize me at all?"

The princess craned her head up to get a better look at the figure. He was tall and broad shouldered. The coat he had on was more dark gray than black, as she had initially noticed, and it was muddy and frayed a little at its hem. A vibrant purple trim lined the hem, tracing its filaments in duller shades of purple throughout the coat. The Bauta mask was simple and plain black, but its eyes resembled goggles. She could not see through them to the figure's face beneath it, however, as they were tinted and reflected only the light around them. The figure's legs were thin, but his feet were long and narrow. Aside from that, there were no other details that she could discern from him.

"No," she finally said. "And I don't  _care_ who you are, either, you monster!"

"Of course not," he shrugged, his voice sounding sorrowful. "You never did care, to begin with, now did you? Funny, how that will be your last statement."

And then, he let go of the rope. The blade dropped, severing the princess' head from her body. As her body lay there twitching, her eyes blinked several times, then came to rest open like a gaping fish.

The figure watched as her hair unfurled, the sticky substance that encased it melting away. The braid extended into seventy feet of magic hair that was slowly turning from blonde to black. It took on the texture of ash but didn't dissolve. The raucous crowd drew back from it all as they watched the princess' hair turn to cobwebs, quieting on sight of it. The executioner extended a gloved hand, touching one of the strands with his pointer finger. "Unbreakable even in death," he said. "A hypothesis I will have to test later."

As for the princess, her last thoughts before death were of a boy and the masked figure. Only the boy wouldn't be a boy anymore. She had been away for years. He would have grown up. To a young man. In a gray coat. And a bauta mask. One word screamed through her mind as the blade met her neck.

_"Varian!!!!!!"_

 

 

 

Later that night, the figure was in Corona's throne room, which was now dusty and cold. He had removed the mask and coat, revealing a young man with black hair and blue eyes. He was sitting on the King's throne, his eyes narrowed, thinking. Soon, he heard footsteps approaching. Looking, he saw two women coming towards him. One, was a familiar warrior with white hair and a white painted face. The other looked like a pirate.

"I believe this is yours," the warrior said, handing the young man a scroll.

He sat up. "My Father's scroll. The princess  _took_ it from me. Thank you, Adira. I couldn't have done this without your help."

A familiar raccoon scampered in between the women's legs. Rudiger leapt up into his friend's lap. "Or  _you_ _,_ buddy," he said as he stroked the creature's fur, "for smuggling in the ingredients I needed to turn the dungeon rats into monsters."

"And what about me?" the pirate lady said next.

"Ahh, Lady Caine. You promised me ruffians, and I promised you an execution. Now we are even."

"Is that so?"

"In truth, no," Varian said, settling back into the comfortable throne. "I can never fully repay you for the hospitality you showed me. You've been like a mother to me."

Lady Caine smirked and turned away. "I'm sorry about your Father. I never thought the destruction the King caused in my life would happen to another child. King Frederick never learned from his mistakes, did he?"

"No," Varian said. "It was his own fault. He got what he deserved."

"Hmmm," Lady Caine said. "None of this would have been possible without your experiments, so I have you to thank as well."

"I have loyalty only to you and your Father," Adira said next. "Not to a King who took something he had no business taking, or to a princess who was just as reckless as he was."

"It must have been awful, pretending to be their friend the whole time they were on that adventure. Tell me, how did you do it?"

"No different than then when you pretended to be Rapunzel's friend in order to steal the sundrop flower."

"I wasn't pretending completely at the time," Varian said grimly. "Things only changed in the end when I realized that she didn't  _care_ about me. That she never..." he trailed off.

"It was much easier for me to do," Adira went on. "And I wasn't with them the whole time. I gleaned what information I could for you from a distance at times. I used them to correct the imbalances taking the sundrop flower created in both this kingdom and in the dark kingdom. Then, I led them back here under the pretense that everything was fine again."

Varian smirked. "And they never knew it?"

"No, they never suspected. Not even a little bit. Or they would not have walked so easily into your trap."

Varian thought it over. His face became distant for a moment, as if some unseen wound was tearing at him from deep within. "Do you think I went to far?" he finally said.

"Given the level of corruption that was uncovered in this kingdom after Frederick's death, I do not think you went far enough," Adira said.

Lady Caine nodded in agreement.

Varian blinked at each of them, the distant pain in his eyes fading to another smirk. "Heh. A mock trial. A quick death, for the princess at least. That was more than they ever gave to me. I was never given a chance at redemption. Why should they have had a chance?" He said this more to himself than anyone else.

"Your Father might still be alive though," Lady Caine said next.

"It's been years," Varian said despondently. "I-" he trailed off. "I shouldn't have been messing with the rocks. No  _good_ ever came from _that_ _._ But our village was dying and nobody was doing anything about it. He is probably dead by now. I've... _accepted_ that, and I don't need his  _pride_ anymore. I-but, I can't accept how it happened. It didn't have to happen. It-" he trailed off again. "I...the way I was treated as well. Some things...are unforgivable."

"The way I see it is this," Adira said. "It was fate. Something would have come along to push things, and that fate was you. None of this would have happened had the King never taken the flower in the first place."

"If King Frederick and your Father were such good friends, as you've said," Lady Caine said next, "then why didn't Frederick help his old friend out, instead of ignoring him?"

"My Father  _lied_  to the King about the whole thing."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know. But he took the villagers and tried to start a new village. I have no idea why he wanted to  _ignore_ the problem. He never told me."

"He knew that as long as Rapunzel was alive and protected by the King, there would be nothing to stop the rocks from spreading," Adira said. "Nothing at all. The only option was to run away. We learned that the hard way back at our kingdom."

"But that didn't  _fix_ the problem, did it?"

"No, your Father knew that. He knew that the only way to stop the problem was to take the problem out at its source, Rapunzel, but to do so would mean going against his old friend, King Frederick. Your father likely was unwilling to do that, mainly out of respect for the friendship, mainly out of fear being labeled a traitor, mainly out of a desire to not cause innocent bloodshed. In order to stop the rocks from spreading, Rapunzel would likely have to die, but even then, the rocks could still continue to devour everything. So, things would have to be sorted out at its source, the dark kingdom, first, then the sundrop flower and its host laid to rest, so as not to cause anymore imbalances. Rapunzel had it within her power to make the journey and end the imbalances herself, but she chose to run from the problem instead of facing it, until things got out of hand, and innocent lives were ruined. Only then did she realize the importance of the journey, but even after everything, she still treated the adventure like a game, unaware that her existence was a curse for many. I watched her regress first hand as a person. It takes great strength and compassion to be able to handle the power of the sundrop flower within and to wield it for good. Rapunzel had none of these traits. She was far too immature and childish. Your Father may have had hope that she would realize her destiny, but not likely, and going against her would have been foolish as long as Frederick ruled. He had a village and you to look out for. What would happen to either you or the village if he were to fail and be executed as a traitor?"

Varian thought it over. "I don't understand why he couldn't just _tell me_ all this," he finally said. "And, as the way things turned out, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. He was still killed in the end and the village, and I, were lost."

"He was under an oath of secrecy about this all, and he didn't want to involve you in it any further. it's also possible that he felt it all would have been too much for you to handle. At the time, you and the princess were friends. Imagine if your Father had revealed her sad fate to you then. He knew you were a sensitive young boy. It would have been too much!

"Sad fate..." Varian mused. "How ironic..."

"Yes, but that is what we do. Our band of warriors. It is our job to do the dirty work of keeping things balanced, no matter what the cost, or what becomes of us. It is our duty. Our way. Passed on from Father to son or Mother to daughter. As for your Father being dead, there really is only one way to find out the truth. Let's go to Old Corona."

Varian's eyes widened at this.

"I have my sword that can cut through anything. We shall see if he is still alive."

 

 

 

In the years since Varian's imprisonment and since Rapunzel had left the kingdom, Old Corona had become a ghost town, haunted by old stories and urban legends. The wall around it was still damaged, as were the homes and pathways. The trees and bushes had all died. The few crops that remained from the fields were withered, the famine that had come from the rocks leaving nothing much to grow. Only the imposing chateau, Varian's old home, remained relatively untouched. Varian shuddered as they passed the old well through the village. He remembered water becoming scarce after the rocks had destroyed it. A rage simmered up in him that he thought he had repressed long ago. Twice on the way through the village he tried to turn around. Only Adira's urging him forward had kept him moving forward.

He didn't want to be here.

He didn't want to see this and relive memories of his past that he had long repressed.

He passed the old school house, where he had been bullied relentlessly until he was allowed to study at home with a private tutor.

Damage from the battle at Old Corona remained. There were remnants of the automatons everywhere. Frederick had never intended to keep his promise to help Varian, free Quirin, or to rebuild Old Corona. Varian learned later that the village Quirin had asked for where the villagers had moved to had also suffered greatly from famine and water shortages. The rocks had moved on to it and taken their toll in only a few short weeks. Things had gotten so bad that the well in the new village had become contaminated with disease and many of the villagers had died from that.

Soon, they reached the broken down entrance to his old home. Inside, it was dusty, cold and dark. When they reached the work space where Quirin was, Varian had expected to see the haunting shape of the amber, with its swirling, frozen tendrils wrapped around a desk and a chair, his Father still trapped inside.

But instead, the amber had melted now that the rocks had receded. Shocked, he saw his Father lying on the floor instead. "Dad!" he rushed forward, the room a blur as he moved.

Adira held her sword lightly and watched the scene unfold before her eyes. She listened to him crying softly. The amber had preserved Quirin exactly as he was when the amber had encased him, not a day older, even in death.

Adira watched her friend and her friend's son, regret eating away at her for a moment. She had been hoping for good news, a chance to reunite with her old friend once again. Now she only had his son to look after, which was better than nothing.

"I'm sorry," she heard Varian whisper through his sobs. "I'm so sorry." She thought it best to go and leave the two alone for a while.

That night in Old Corona, there was a small memorial. It was a New Moon, and the sky was clear yet dark, only a milky wave of stars filling it. Two torches of blue flame were lit on either side of a workbench that had been placed outside. Varian stood side by side with Adira, his gaze narrowed on his Father's reposed form on the bench. The flames flickered and danced, casting cool blue shadows on to their faces. Adira was somber. Then, she began to hum a soft, soothing yet sad song.

Varian listened to her deep voice. He felt that it was soothing wounds deep within him that he had forgotten all about. "What is that song?" he finally said after a few minutes of listening to it, his voice low.

"It's an elegy," Adira said. "Part of a nine part piece dedicated to the cycles of the moon. The dark moon. An end and a new beginning. From death to birth, birth to death, life begins anew again," and she sang the rest of the song in a strange language Varian had never heard before, yet it sounded familiar. Still not fully understanding the lyrics, he listened to the still yet hopeful melody.

"I like it," he whispered. "It almost makes me feel better."

Adira finished the song and then said nothing for a while. Then, "tomorrow we'll go to the Dark Kingdom. You'll like it there. It's where you belong."

"And leave Dad?"

"No, he can come with his. We'll lay him to rest there."

He looked from her to his Father, then at the torches, and finally at the dark night sky. Slowly, he let all of it carry him to a place he had never been before.

 

 

 

And so, they left Corona behind them, where it was left to rot. Lady Caine and her brethren remained in the kingdom for a bit, using it as their lair, before they found that Vardaros was much more suited for them.

Cass and Eugene were never heard from or seen again, quite possibly left to rot in the dungeons of old Corona.

As for the head of the princess, it remained perfectly preserved. The hair from it grew longer each year, until it soon covered every inch of the castle and its walls. Many small creatures and insects made the hair their home. Squirrels built nests in it, as did birds. Insects and spiders used it to build webs. And there it remained as the kingdom fell further into disrepair over the ages, and all kinds of rumors and legends grew about the kingdom and its fallen royal family, a cautionary tale for those who would seek to harness the power of the elements and use them for selfish purposes.

Rumor had it that a new kingdom arose shortly after everything. It was here, in this kingdom, that those who weren't wanted anywhere else were welcomed. Orphans, outcasts, and other lost souls came to this kingdom for help where they were never turned away. The kingdom's ruler never a broke a promise no matter how small, and everyone there lived quite happily ever after.

[End]

  
  


 


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